The cure for the overnight bus blues

What do you after a 10 hour overnight bus with a crying baby (and a snoring father – apparently the sick baby was the mother’s responsibility only) that made it impossible to sleep? Well, you give the mother a sympathetic smile when you get off the bus (because as bad as the trip was for you, it was even worse for her) and then get to the nearest hostel as quickly as possible and agree to whatever price they are advertising and pass out.

And when you wake up? Enjoy the lovely hot water in the shower, try to find something not too-wrinkled in your backpack and take full advantage of your nice hotel room with a deck of cards and a bottle of El Gato. The options in Cusco are either very expensive (well, very expensive on a backpackers budget) or bottom of the barrel. Hence, the El Gato.

Cusco, Peru is over 11,000 feet above sea level and at night, it gets a bit chilly. So, you give up beer for the evening and look out over the red-roof topped city, sipping boxed wine that isn’t great and isn’t terrible (but it’s fruity and warming and getting the job done), losing at cards, getting excited at the thought of dinner and most importantly, forgetting all about that overnight bus ride. Well, you forget about it enough to enjoy the evening. But you remember it enough to buy plane tickets for your next part of the journey.